Nearly a week after the release of the Senate report detailing the CIA's brutal Bush-era interrogation program, the U.S. military said on Monday it had canceled the two-day pretrial hearing for the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The hearing, set to be held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was supposed to look into allegations that the FBI attempted to infiltrate legal defense teams of Guantanamo prisoners, according to the court's docket, Reuters reported.
While no official reason was given for the cancellation, last week's U.S. Senate report on CIA torture likely played a role in the decision.
According to the report, the CIA waterboarded the alleged mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 183 times in a single month to try to force him to reveal additional planned attacks. Mohammed was also subjected to "insult slaps, walling, and water dousing."
On Monday, the retired Air Force psychologist identified as the "architect" of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program, James Mitchell, confirmed for the first time to VICE News that he personally waterboarded Mohammed.
"There were some abuses that occurred," Mitchell admitted.
In the end, the tactics produced false confessions and were deemed an ineffective "means of obtaining accurate information," according to the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
The evidence of torture found in the reports makes prosecuting suspected terrorists much more difficult, according to attorneys representing the four Guantanamo prisoners set to go to trial, Reuters reported.
"The most significant revelations from the Senate report is the conclusion based on entries into the CIA record that many of the statements the CIA made are simply lies," Jim Cohen, an attorney representing two Guantanamo detainees, told Reuters.
"That is going to be hard to resist by fact-finders in connection with the Guantanamo prosecutions," and CIA evidence critical to the prosecution could be thrown out, he added.
In July, Army colonel Judge James Pohl ruled that despite the FBI approaching a security officer for a defense team, there had been no conflict of interest for the defense attorneys.
Lawyers for Mohammed and four other suspects hoped this week's hearing would allow Pohl to determine the extent of FBI contact with members of the defense team, according to The Guardian.
